Conventionally, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-341860, as an apparatus for taking out a plurality of stacked sheets one by one, an apparatus for permitting a take-out roller to make contact with a sheet at one end in the stacking direction and rotate, thereby taking out the sheet in the direction almost orthogonal to the stacking direction is known. This apparatus, for example, is incorporated into a postal matter processing apparatus for checking and sorting a plurality of postal matter.
Further, for example, as disclosed in EPO 645330B1, as such a take-out apparatus, an apparatus including a belt moving in the take-out direction in contact with sheets and a negative pressure generator for permitting the moving belt to absorb the sheets by acting negative pressure on the sheets via a plurality of holes of the belt is known. This apparatus has a suction structure having no conveying force outside the belt and generates an air current for sucking sheets to the belt.
However, in the apparatus disclosed in EPO 645330B1, sheets are stuck to the opening of the suction structure, thus there are possibilities that the sheets may not be taken out. In this case, the processing capacity of the apparatus is reduced and sheets cannot be taken out stably.